Titles

Collected

Creators

Changing is always harder than staying the same. It takes courage to face yourself in the mirror and look beyond the reflection. To find the you that you should have been. The you who got derailed by cruel childhood events. Events that took your life's natural trajectory and twisted it. Changing it into something unimaginable... or even incredible... giving you the courage to embrace you birthright, your destiny, and finally realize... that you are BATMAN.

With the city in chaos, Dick Grayson enlists Batman Family affiliates like Knight and Squire into the Network to keep things under control. There's a massive Arkham Asylum prison break organized by a new Black Mask, who burns the Asylum down and explains that he's had all the villains implanted with chips that will burn them alive unless they obey him. Commissioner Gordon is accused of losing Gotham to the gangs, and Riddler confronts him directly when the Bat-Signal is modified to say R.I.P.. In the Batcave, Tim Drake tries to convince Grayson that one of them needs to adopt the cowl, and begins wearing one of Batman's earlier suits when Grayson refuses. Drake begins hunting down an expert copycat Batman who is murdering criminals. Black Mask begins taking down the operations of Penguin and Two-Face as his two biggest competitors, and his agents capture Damian al Ghul taking a joyride in the Batmobile. Nightwing tries to save Damian and they're cornered by gunmen, until the impostor Batman shows up and reveals himself in a blaze of gunfire.[2] He saves them by shooting down all of the criminals, and Grayson deduces that this gunman is Jason Todd. Todd distracts them by non-fatally shooting Damian and escapes. Penguin and Two-Face begin going to war over Black Mask's actions, each believing the other is responsible as they're the biggest two figures in organized crime. Mask uses Adam Bomb and Firefly to devastate the city while Jane Doe is sent to impersonate a police officer and shoots Commissioner Gordon. Tim and Catwoman discover Jason's secret lair, although he catches them and pistol whips Catwoman off a rock.

Jason and Tim battle and Tim beats Jason with a crowbar, although Jason wins when he stabs Tim through the chest with a batarang.[3] The military is brought in to deal with Black Mask's terrorism, and Grayson coordinates the Network to look into this new villain. Black Mask quietly admires his own achievements while Penguin is arrested and Two-Face leaves town. Dick hunts down Jason, who lies that he killed Tim and they begin fighting. In Bruce's video will it is shown that he urged Jason to give up vigilante life, as he believes him to be mentally ill and in need of help. Their fight spills out into the open when Jason blows up his cave. Damian is stitched up and assists Squire in rescuing Tim before the roof caves in on him. In their ultimate battle, Dick and Jason literally battle over Batman's cowl atop a speeding subway car. Dick kicks Jason over the side and offers to lift him back up, but Jason refuses help and presumably plunges to his own death. Because of this disaster, Dick realizes the importance of what they do and finally decides that he will become the new Batman with Damian Wayne as Robin at his side.[4]

Commissioner Gordon

When the released Arkham inmates wreak havoc on Gotham, James Gordon is accused of being useless as Batman has always taken care of his worst problems. Mister Freeze is sighted and Gordon personally leads a squad of agents to take him down, although they're all frozen and he's kidnapped. Freeze takes Gordon hostage in his lair and taunts him for being unable to protect his city without Batman. Gordon pushes through the cold and breaks out of his chains, dismantling the equipment to take Freeze down with a gas explosion and then beat him with a lead pipe. Returning to GCPD Headquarters, he finally acknowledges that Batman is dead and tells his team it's time for them to take back their city.[10]

Man-Bat

Kirk Langstrom is distressed when he realize he's the only friend of Batman not trusted enough to be called to Gotham's aid in the time of crisis. Francine Langstrom is kidnapped by Doctor Phosphorus, and Kirk takes the Man-Bat Serum again to become a monster and find her. Battling through Lynx and the Outsiders, he finds Phosphorus but is knocked out and has the rest of his serum destroyed. When Francine is about to be executed, Kirk hears Batman's voice inside his head and turns into Man-Bat without the serum for the first time. After beating Phosphorus to a pulp, he realizes he's become an even more dangerous monster with the Outsiders observing him and he runs off shirtless into the night.[11]

The Network

Oracle coordinates all available members of her Network when Hugo Strange announces he plans to test the new Batman. Three hostages are taken and Oracle is forced to choose which one will survive while the other two are killed, or given the option to save two by killing a third, with Strange taking gambling bets from a moving casino. Oracle foils his plans by hacking into his systems and having her operatives take down all of his men, proving that even with Batman gone they never need to take the easy way out.[12]

Oracle

Oracle's hacker friend is murdered by the Calculator while he is trying to find fragments of the Anti-Life Equation to resurrect his son Marvin and heal his comatose daughter Wendy.[13] This forces Oracle to enter the internet as a physical avatar and destroy his plans before Calculator kills again.[14] In their online battle, Calculator is infected with the Equation so that he can no longer use devices connected to the internet without Oracle finding him and taking him down. Wendy wakes up on her own before he can use the Equation on her, only to learn that she has also become paraplegic.[15]

Secret Six

The Secret Six visit Gotham to pay their respects to Batman and take down a group of terrorists in his honor. Bane and Catman bicker sardonically, each suggesting that the other should take Batman's place while insisting that they both have no interest in doing so. Rag Doll wears a Robin costume and insists upon being the next He/She Wonder. They stop the terrorists from executing children of the capitalist elite, but Nightwing arrives and is furious that they murdered everyone in their path. He demands that they leave his city and they obey, with Catman remarking that the fascist sanctimony is why he could never be a super-hero.[16]

The Underground

Penguin hires the Riddler as a private detective to investigate the new Black Mask. His first lead is the original Black Mask's killer Catwoman, who is busy taking down super-villains in the street while she deals with Bruce's death. Harley Quinn teams up with the Riddler when he asks to speak to her roommate, Catwoman's former successor Holly Robinson. Catwoman meets and fights the Batman impostor Jason Todd, who kicks her off a bridge and into a car. Poison Ivy burns Black Mask's controlling chip out of her own system and joins the group, as Riddler and Quinn converge to find Catwoman bleeding on the street.[17]